Academy members voted for four candidates for open regular director positions on the Academy Board of Directors, as voting wrapped up last week. The new directors will be Bruce Cadenhead, Tim Geddes, Stu Mathewson, and Tricia Matson. Cadenhead, Mathewson, and Matson will serve three-year terms as regular directors expiring in 2020. Geddes will serve a one-year term ending in 2018 to fill the spot being vacated by Laurel Kastrup, who was nominated earlier this year to become the Academy’s vice president, Risk Management and Financial Reporting Council. All of the new directors’ terms will begin after the Academy’s Annual Meeting on Nov. 14.

Aug. 4, 2017
Academy Regular Director Elections Are Now Open

Voting is underway for four regular directors. Please check for an email from Intelliscan (academy2017@intelliscaninc.net), the Academy’s election vendor, for your online ballot. For those without email addresses, you will receive your ballot by regular mail. If you need help with or have questions about your ballot, send an email to Keith Weir (kwier@intelliscaninc.com). For other questions, please contact Claire Mickelson, Academy senior policy analyst (mickelson@actuary.org).

July 21, 2017
Academy Board Election to start August 4

Academy members should look for an email on Aug. 4 from Intelliscan, our election vendor, announcing that information regarding election of regular directors for the Academy Board is underway.

A preliminary notification that this email would be coming was sent to members on July 21—these emails will come from academy2017@intelliscaninc.net; please add this address to your safe senders list and/or check your junk-mail folder to make sure you have received it. The election period will run through Aug. 25.

We encourage members to take part in electing the newest leaders of the Academy who will help us fulfill our mission to serve the public and the U.S. actuarial profession.

June 30, 2017
Academy Announces Slate of Regular Directors and Online Election in August

Geddes is nominated to serve the remaining year of a three-year term that will expire in 2018. The other three are nominated to serve three-year terms as regular directors expiring in 2020. Mathewson is currently on the Academy Board and was elected last year to a then-remaining one-year term that will expire this fall.

Cadenhead, a member of the Pension Practice Council since 2013, has served the Academy with webinar and in-person presentations on pension and retirement issues.

“As policy debates become increasingly divided along ideological lines, it becomes more important to maintain the Academy’s reputation for providing objective analysis without shying away from tackling challenging issues,” Cadenhead said. “My goal is to help the Academy continue to be effective in striking that balance.”

Mathewson is a member of the Flood Insurance Work Group and Natural Catastrophe Subcommittee, and his Academy service includes stints as chairperson of the Flood Insurance Subcommittee (2007–2012) and co-chairperson of the P/C Extreme Events Committee (also 2007–2012). He is currently on the Academy Board, and was elected last year to the then-remaining one year of a three-year term that will expire this fall. He is being nominated to a new, full three-year term.

While his background is primarily in casualty issues, such as the National Flood Insurance Program, Mathewson said he recognizes the “critical importance” of the Academy’s work in other areas, such as Social Security and health insurance.

“I believe that the Academy has unique capabilities in these areas and I am committed to seeing that those capabilities are employed in a way that assures the Academy continues to be viewed as a go-to source of objective information for the public good,” he said.

Matson, a past chairperson of the Actuarial Standards Board, has also served as chairperson of the Longevity Risk Task Force and on several Academy committees related to financial reporting, risk-based capital, and risk management. She was awarded the Academy’s Outstanding Volunteerism Award in 2015.

“Unlike many professions, our code of conduct creates minimum standards for our work that enable the public to place trust in actuarial work from which they receive benefit,” Matson said. “The work of the Academy committees and volunteers help to advance actuarially informed perspectives that will benefit the public good … [and] I want to support Academy efforts to maintain a sustainable volunteer group to continue this mission into the future.”

Geddes’ volunteer service to the Academy includes having served on the Pension Committee and as a webinar presenter on pension and retirement issues. “My service on the Board will allow me to provide further input into the Academy’s agenda and priorities to address the myriad of complex and important issues facing the actuarial profession and the public,” he said.

The Academy membership will vote on the slate of regular director candidates during an online election to be held from Aug. 4 to Aug. 25. All Academy members as of the voting eligibility cutoff date—which the Academy will announce in advance to the membership—will receive voting instructions and ballots by mail or email.

Incoming directors’ terms will begin on Nov. 14 at the close of the Academy’s Annual Meeting of the membership in Washington.

May 31, 2017

Academy Announces Slate of Officer Nominees for Board of Directors

The Academy’s Nominating Committee has nominated four more individuals for officer positions on the Academy Board of Directors, with terms beginning in November. In addition to Shawna Ackerman, who was nominated in March (see below) to serve as the Academy’s next president-elect, the nominees are:

➥ Tom Campbell, a member of the Committee on Qualifications and a former vice president of the Life Practice Council (LPC), to serve a second year as the Academy’s secretary-treasurer, a position that is elected annually by the Board for up to three consecutive terms;
➥ Laurel Kastrup, currently a regular director on the Board, for vice president, to serve as chairperson of the Risk Management and Financial Reporting Council;
➥ Dave Neve, former Board member and former vice chairperson of the LPC, for vice president, to serve as chairperson of the LPC; and
➥ Josh Shapiro, chairperson of the Multiemployer Plans Subcommittee, for vice president, to serve as chairperson of the Pension Practice Council (PPC).

“It’s been a tremendous experience serving the Academy over the past year as secretary-treasurer, and I look forward to doing so again next year,” Campbell said. “Being part of the leadership team that addresses the needs of our profession—and our relationship with the public and policymakers—is both a gratifying and a humbling experience.”

Kastrup said “the changing role of the actuary in risk management, along with domestic and international policy and practice changes, make it an exciting and important time to lead the Risk Management and Financial Reporting Council. I look forward to the opportunity to work with council members and those in other practice areas on the issues that are shaping our profession.”

“With more and more Americans retiring without traditional pension benefits, and many traditional defined benefit plans facing financial challenges, there is a need for new thinking and new ideas regarding the delivery of retirement benefits,” Shapiro said. “Bringing actuarial expertise to bear in these discussions is a critical role for the PPC, and I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to help make that happen as vice president.”

“There are many different moving pieces right now affecting the life practice area, including [principle-based reserving] implementation, new lifetime income product designs, new underwriting approaches, and the impact of low interest rates,” Neve said. “The LPC and its component groups have performed a great deal of essential work in these and other areas through the Academy over the years—vital work that needs to continue, and I will focus on that as vice president.”

Vice presidents serve two-year terms on the Academy’s Board. Currently serving and continuing vice presidents—Rade Musulin, of the Casualty Practice Council; Shari Westerfield, of the Health Practice Council; and Joeff Williams, of the Council on Professionalism—were elected to their positions last year.

The nominating process is designed to ensure that all candidates bring deep expertise, experience, and balance to the Board, and also significant knowledge of the Academy’s history, mission, and priorities.

Per the Academy’s bylaws, this slate will be voted on by the Board at its annual meeting in October. Terms will begin at the completion of the Academy’s Annual Meeting, to be held Nov. 14 in Washington, D.C., as part of the 2017 Annual Meeting and Public Policy Forum.

For more information about the Nominating Committee guidelines for selection of candidates and other election details, please visit the Academy’s Board Election Center. Regular director candidates, elected by the membership at large in an online election over the summer, will be announced in the near future.

April 28, 2017

Shawna Ackerman Nominated to Be Academy President-Elect

Shawna Ackerman has been nominated to be the Academy’s next president-elect, as announced by the Nominating Committee.

“Shawna’s commitment to the mission of the Academy is evidenced by her long and impressive volunteer history,” said Mary D. Miller, Nominating Committee chairperson and Academy past president. “The committee has every confidence that she will be an outstanding presidential officer.”

Ackerman has been an Academy volunteer since 2000 and was vice president of the Academy’s Casualty Practice Council (CPC) from 2014 to 2016. During her time as vice president, the CPC was active on the national stage, helping to develop the Actuaries Climate Index and engaging with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and the National Conference of Insurance Legislators on the emerging area of price optimization. She has also served on numerous committees and task forces for the Actuarial Standards Board.

“I am humbled by the honor of being nominated and very excited to take on this role knowing the strength of the staff and the many volunteers who support the Academy’s mission to serve the public and the profession,” Ackerman said.

Ackerman received an Outstanding Volunteerism Award from the Academy in 2012, in recognition of her efforts in spearheading a multiyear effort that spanned all actuarial disciplines and resulted in the publication of a special report on actuarial soundness. That report provided a platform for engaging and educating policymakers and regulators about the meaning, variations, and importance of the phrase “actuarial soundness.”

Currently chief actuary of the California Earthquake Authority in Sacramento, Calif., Ackerman previously worked as a principal and consulting actuary at Pinnacle Actuarial Resources and Miller, Herbers, Lehmann & Associates, and as senior casualty actuary at the California Department of Insurance.

The Nominating Committee will be announcing the slate of nominations for other Academy officer positions in the near future. In accordance with the Academy bylaws, the Academy Board of Directors will vote on the slate of officer nominees at the annual meeting of the Board on Oct. 19.

As announced in the March edition of Actuarial Update, the Nominating Committee is also seeking recommendations from the membership for regular director openings. The slate of regular directors will be voted on by the membership during an online election to be held this summer. All new Board terms will begin immediately following the close of the Academy’s annual meeting, to be held on Nov. 14.

March 21, 2017

Submit Suggestions for Regular Directors

Regular directors are elected to the Academy Board of Directors by the Academy membership in an online election during the summer from a slate of candidates presented by the Academy’s Nominating Committee. The committee will meet over the coming month to identify new candidates for regular directors in accordance with the Nominating Committee Guidelines.

The Academy holds uncontested elections. Some will recall that the Board experimented several years ago with contested elections for regular director seats over a two- or three-year period, as a means of testing a voting tradition that some other actuarial associations have. After several years of the experiment, the Board made a decision three years ago to reaffirm the longstanding Academy process of holding uncontested elections.

The Academy’s Nominating Committee tries to ensure that the Academy’s Board composition reflects our unique position as the U.S. national organization established to include actuaries from all practice areas—as well as an equitable distribution among actuarial specialties, business affiliations, and employers. To achieve such a balance, the Academy’s nominating process has long relied primarily on a Nominating Committee process that entrusts that committee with identifying Academy volunteers whose service to the Academy has made them an excellent candidate for service on our Board, which is dedicated to furthering our public policy and professionalism mission. The committee carefully vets candidates for appropriateness in accordance with the guidelines. The Nominating Committee looks for candidates for regular directors who have served the Academy, often through having been chairpersons on Academy committees and task forces. In addition, the Nominating Committee welcomes input from the membership at large—through this announcement, the Nominating Committee is asking you directly for submission of any recommendations you want to ask them to consider for regular director candidates.

The nominating process is designed to ensure that all candidates bring deep expertise and experience, and also significant knowledge of the Academy’s history, mission, and priorities.

Please share your recommendation by submitting the member’s name and information here in the Academy Board Election Center no later than May 15, 2017. Results of the nominating process will be announced in future publications, including This Week and Actuarial Update.

Academy members are invited to nominate themselves or others for consideration as a candidate to be a regular director on the Academy’s Board of Directors. Simply submit your nomination to the Academy’s Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee may also be reaching out directly to members and asking them to seek election to the Board as a regular director.